ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Information Technology has asked for a budget of 20 billion rupees to improve the country’s cyber security and regulate social media.
Government sources told The Express Tribune that the Ministry of Information Technology has demanded Rs 20 billion for the Digital Information Infrastructure Initiative in the upcoming budget.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Information Technology refrained from commenting on the said demand, however, senior officials of these ministries confirmed that funds of Rs 20 billion have been requested for the DII project. 15 billion has already been given as technical supplementary grant.
In February this year, according to the Ministry of Finance, the Economic Coordination Committee approved Rs 10 billion as a technical supplementary grant for the Digital Information Infrastructure Initiative during the current fiscal year on the request of the Ministry of Information Technology.
Sources said that the total cost of the digital project is 38 billion rupees, the project consists of Chinese technology, a part of the cost will be spent in the current year while the remaining amount has been requested for the next financial year.
The purpose of funding the project by the Ministry of Finance is to acquire the necessary technical capacity to detect possible cyber threats on the cyber security and critical national information infrastructure. The budget of the IT Ministry for the current fiscal year was Rs. has been received, which is more than 150 percent of its original budget.
The new technology will also be used to regulate social media with the aim of preventing ‘misuse’ of various social media platforms and unfounded malicious campaigns.
The government has already banned X (Twitter) in Pakistan, but with the Prime Minister, federal ministers, ministries and the public at large using the service through proxies, it is feared that the ban on X may be replicated by others. Can also be extended to platforms.
Sources said that a plan is under consideration to allow only those social media platforms that have a presence in Pakistan through their offices, such as Tik Tok and YouTube, which have representation in Pakistan, to the government. Respond more proactively.
Sources say that new regulations are being drawn up to regulate social media and legislation may be enacted to give them legal protection, this development coming at a time when the Punjab Assembly has passed a highly controversial defamation law. By passing Bill 2024, it has pitted itself against the media.
